In this ‘de-harmonising’ series, we’ve been attempting to see the different threads and emphases that each of the four tellings of the gospel of Jesus in the New Testament. We’re aiming to see each one as a unique and beautiful work of art, seeing in 4-D rather than the one-dimensional picture that we can sometimes get from nativity plays.

Luke is the last of the gospels in this series (have a look at Mark, John and Matthew), the one that we’re most familiar with, the one that contributes the most to the story of Christmas that we hear retold each year. Like Matthew, Luke tells the story of Jesus’ birth in only two chapters, less even, it will take you about 13 minutes to read.

The story that’s told here is very different to Matthew – beginning with Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, the angel’s visit to Mary rather than Joseph, the shepherds and the worship of Simeon and Anna in the Temple. Rather than interpolating the events that Matthew describes, let’s take Luke at face value and see what he’s trying to tell us about Jesus and the story he is going on to tell in the remaining 22 chapters.

Firstly, we notice that all the characters introduced in these chapters are ‘cameo parts’ for Luke. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, the Shepherds, Simeon, Anna – none of these appear again in Luke. Mary comes up once or twice in Luke’s gospel again; John the Baptist appears a few more times, but these are not the key players in the story of Jesus. They’re also people who would have been considered marginalised in their context.

Zechariah was a priest, but he must have been quite low down the ranking to be part of the rotation. He and his wife were old, and ‘righteous before God’, but childless. This was a huge stigma in ancient society, seen as a curse, no matter how good someone appeared. Shepherds are well known to have been outcasts in first century Palestine – they did a dirty, manual job and were mistrusted in a similar way to Travellers or Gypsies here in the UK. Simeon and Anna, though age was respected, had chosen a lifestyle that was unusual, even weird.

Luke tells us nothing of Joseph, except that he was a descendant of David. This royal lineage gives him no benefits, however, as he has to follow the command of the Emperor and travel miles to Bethlehem for the census. Mary is a young, unmarried woman – a nobody until she is ‘exalted’. They travel to Joseph’s ‘hometown’, somewhere he should have had family, never mind a place in the inn. But an unmarried couple that were quite obviously about to have a baby was a toxic scandal that no one would touch, not even a hotelier. They camp out by the road – no mention of a stable here. Mangers were stone feeding troughs that a livestock herder would fill with enough hay or straw for his herd or flock, then leave empty when they continued on with their journey to market. It’s an image of complete emptiness – not a cosy little shed with straw and animals looking on, nothing at all to witness or support this traumatic night. The shattered mother wraps the newborn baby in cloths to cushion him against the hard, cold stone.

Surely the angelic host should have been supporting and warming Mary and Jesus, not off telling shepherds (shepherds of all people!) about the birth! But this tale sets the tone for Luke. Jesus is here for a mission, one that takes in every outcast, rejected and overlooked person everywhere. He begins as one of us – one of ‘them’, the despised, yet we don’t get the sense that we should be pitying anyone or patronising with gifts. Jesus is the gift to everyone – especially those who don’t deserve or expect him. The most religious and righteous man in the story is struck dumb for nine months by a single angel, while filthy thieving shepherds go round telling everyone the miracle they were told about by a huge choir of angels.

For Luke, everything is about mission. The songs of Mary and Zechariah praise the mercy of God in helping Israel, keeping his promises by sending Jesus. The way this plays out is in the shepherds coming to see what they were told about, then telling everyone who would listen. While Simeon blesses Jesus, praising God for his gift, Anna goes further in telling the story of Jesus throughout Jerusalem. The tone of the story we tell at Christmas should not be the dull monotone of reading familiar lines of scripture but the excited bubbling over of people who have seen and experienced the incredible gift of God, the longed for fulfilment of promises so good we can hardly believe them. It isn’t nice, neat or civilised. It’s raw, difficult, messy and includes people who have never understood how they are supposed to act. Yet it’s those people who have the energy and enthusiasm to really do justice to the incredible story.